Oh! My aching lumber region!!

In order to save our gentle shores from a benevolent take over to protect our democracy, I have found a site the lists Australian Lmber which might be of help. I do not know the prices or delivery arrangements. However, ther are some timbers listed which you may find rewarding to work with. Jarrah in particular can give the warmth that Red Gum has. Its lighter in weight, but very durable and relatively easy to work. It also tends to “move” less than Red Gum.The site is

Other timbers I think you would enjoy working with would be BrushBox (looks great with Jarrah), Spotted Gum, Sydney Blue Gum, which is a “salmon pink” hardwood with great grain, Karri, which is another Red timber with straight grain pattern, sometimes with lighter striations and of course Silky Oak, which is the same as Lacewood.

Hope you find this useful. I suspect the reason you don’t see Red Gum in the US very often is that it is extremely heavy (63lbs/cubic foot) and that it is prone to movement in varying conditions. Therefre it may be fine in Az, but appaling in Wa. these guys say they can get other timbers, so maybe if you get a group together and ask them to import some RG?